Environmental communications (EC) display three aspects of import to journalism teachers and researchers: first, the EC research base is lean but growing; second, environmental communicators are widely dispersed among an EC ecosystem of varied components; and third, while the varied roots of EC precede the present decade by many years, environmental communications themselves seem to represent a new species for instruction and investigation. The varied components in which environmental communicators are employed today include the mass and specialized print, graphic, and electronic media; governmental resource management agencies; professional societies; citizen environmental organizations; resource industries; colleges and universities; libraries; and museums. The roots of EC include nature writing, outdoor recreation and travel writing, science writing, public affairs reporting, and persuasion. The common denominators of the various forms of EC include a hard core of ecological content, a recognition of worldwide problems of crisis proportions, a value system, and a concern for private and public action. (An appendix offers a digest of environmental publications including major focus and fees paid for articles.) (TJ)